15-11-2021
Qatar Stock Exchange announced today the launch of an environmental, social and institutional sustainability index in cooperation with MSCI, which is one of the world's leading institutions in the field of indicators and services for the global investment community. The new index will be called the "MSCI Qatar Stock Exchange Index of Sustainable Companies".
This index has been designed to identify the top 20 securities within the MSCI Qatar IMI index that best achieve the environmental, social and institutional governance (ESG) standards. This index comes in response to the growing demand for sustainable investment tools by investors and is the first ESG index in the Qatari stock market, and also represents the first cooperation between Qatar Stock Exchange and MSCI in the field of stock indices.
The methodology for the new indicator is based on MSCI's ratings of environmental, social and corporate governance with highest (AAA) and lowest (CCC) ratings. The company's weight is determined by its weight in the MSCI Qatar IMI.
The Qatar Exchange looks forward that this tradable index will serve as the basis for more financial products linked to the index, especially the exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
On this occasion, Mr. Rashid bin Ali Al-Mansoori, CEO of the Qatar Stock Exchange, welcomed the launch of the index, which represents a step towards enhancing sustainability for listed companies, which contributes to responding to the demands of investors who have become more interested in responsible investment. He added that he expects that the index will contribute to expanding the classification of local companies and to serve as a measure of their sustainability, thus encouraging them to adopt a more sustainable approach in terms of environmental, social and institutional terms to improve their classification on the index and attract more foreign investment flows.
For his part, Mr. Henry Fernandez, Chairman and CEO of MSCI, expressed his welcome to cooperate with the Qatar Stock Exchange and to make the new index available to investors, especially as it represents an investment target for institutional investors who are looking to invest in tradable indices that integrate sustainability criteria in liquid instruments.